Judge Implies Jailed Defendants Made Calls to Terrify Witnesses

By JOSEPH P. FRIED

Published: March 8, 1989

The judge at the trial of three men charged with murdering a police officer in Queens suggested yesterday that the defendants had sought to intimidate witnesses by telephone from jail.

''I have been advised that your clients have been making phone calls to witnesses,'' Justice Thomas A. Demakos told defense lawyers in explaining why he would not turn over to them yesterday the name of a prosecution witness scheduled to testify today.

But when the lawyers - who denied that their clients had tried to pressure witnesses - asked the judge where his information came from, he said he was speaking about one incident in which a witness had indicated to prosecutors ''that he was fearful, that he had received a telephone call from one of the defendants.'' Witness Was Defendant's Uncle

The judge did not say which defendant had made the call or when, but he identified the witness as Roger Phillips, the uncle of one of the defendants, Todd Scott, 20 years old. Mr. Phillips, in whose South Jamaica apartment prosecutors say the the slaying of the officer, Edward Byrne, was planned, was to have testified for the prosecution Monday, but did not. Justice Demakos said yesterday that a prosecutor, Eugene Kelly, had said he may not call Mr. Phillips to the stand because of his fear.

The witness whose name the judge refused to give yesterday to defense lawyers - he said he would give it to them this morning - was said by the lawyers to be a prostitute. Law enforcement officials have previously said that a prostitute saw the execution-style slaying of Officer Byrne as the 22-year-old rookie was sitting alone in a patrol car a year ago, guarding the previously firebombed home in South Jamaica of a drug-case witness. Wanted Name and Background

The prosecution has charged Mr. Scott and three other men - Scott Cobb, 25; Philip Copeland, 23, and David McClary, 23 - with shooting the officer in the head at the order of a high-level drug dealer seeking to retaliate against the police for his conviction in a gun-possession case. Mr. Cobb and Mr. Copeland are now on trial with Mr. Scott; Mr. McClary will be tried separately later.

The defense lawyers said they wanted the witness's name and background information on her yesterday so they would have time to prepare their cross-examination for her appearance today. But Justice Demakos said there was no obligation to give them such information until the witness ''takes the stand,'' and that, if they received the information at 9 A.M. today, they would have enough time to review it before she testifies later in the morning.